Pennsylvania man identified after wreck in Giles County

At 9:18 a.m. Monday, April 14 Virginia State Police were called to the scene of a crashed vehicle on Route 100 near Jim’s Grocery in Giles County. James John McGrath, 45, of South Park, Pa., crashed a 2007 Kia Sedona Minivan at 6:37 a.m. that morning.

According to Corinne Gellar, public relations director for Virginia State Police, the vehicle had run off the road, struck a metal bridge support and continued down an embankment. Gellar said there was evidence at the scene that the vehicle’s driver had been able to exit the vehicle and crawl up the embankment to the road, but no persons could be located with or near the crashed vehicle.

According to First Sergeant Mike Honaker of Virginia State Police, “Though the investigation revealed that the crash occurred at approximately 6:37 a.m., the crash was not reported to the Virginia State Police until almost three hours later … Upon the arrival of Trooper Richard Hughes, the vehicle was found to be extensively damaged after crashing into the bridge abutment at Route 100 and Little Creek Road. When the trooper arrived, there were no occupants in the vehicle, which necessitated a search of the area by personnel from the Virginia State Police, the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office, Dublin Fire Department and Pulaski County Emergency Management.”

State police were able to identify the male driver of the vehicle by contacting family, Gellar said, and extensive searches of the immediate area and neighboring hospitals were conducted by state police in an effort to determine what had happened to the missing male driver. During the course of those searches, state police were notified at 10:40 a.m. that the driver had been located and had left the scene on his own accord and uninjured.

“After about an hour of searching, McGrath was located several hundred yards north of the crash scene along Little Creek. McGrath was disoriented and intoxicated, though he was not injured in the crash,” said Honaker. “He was arrested by Trooper Hughes for being Intoxicated in Public, and he was also charged with Reckless Driving, at which time he was taken before the Pulaski County Magistrate.